The director of the Santo Domingo Water and Sewage Corporation (CAASD) and Canadian Ambassador Shauna Hemingway visited the area of the Guajimia Creek in Santo Domingo West for talks on the second phase of the sanitary megaproject that would benefit 300,000 persons. This would be the second phase of the project to condition the waterway that floods during the rainy season creating a dangerous situation for the health of the hundreds of thousands that live in the area surrounded by poor neighborhoods with a dense population living without basic sanitary services.
The government of Canada had backed a first phase implemented by the Canadian engineering firm Dessau-Soprin of Canada. A second phase calls for an investment of more than US$138 million.
Back in 2006, the Santo Domingo Water and Sewer Corporation (CAASD) started cleaning up the Guajimia Creek and its tributaries, thanks to a US$83 million loan from the Canadian government. The project also called for the construction of 208 apartments for the residents of the Guajimia watershed. For more than 30 years the residents of the area have watched as the creek filled with garbage and other waste, and their homes have flooded after every rainstorm.
The cleanup benefits over 200,000 people in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Santo Domingo, like Herrera, Buenos Aires, Alameda, Juan Pablo Duarte, La Altagracia, La Rosa, Las Caobas and the area surrounding the Santo Domingo Country Club.
The Guajimia Creek is 13.58 kilometers long and drains into the Haina River to the west of Santo Domingo. It is the principal watershed and drainage for western Santo Domingo.
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Diario Libre
11 April 2018
